Entries in Michele Bachmann
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Jonathan Ernst/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- For the second time in two days a top Republican has rejected claims by Rep. Michele Bachmann and four other Republicans that an aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has ties to a radical Islamic organization.

House Speaker John Boehner said the suggestion by Bachmann, R-Minn., and the others was “pretty dangerous.”

Earlier this week Sen. John McCain called the insinuations “ugly” and “sinister.”

Last month, Bachmann, R-Minn., and four other House Republicans wrote a letter claiming that the family of Huma Abedin, a senior Clinton aide, has ties to Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood and questioned whether she is part of a conspiracy to harm the United States by influencing U.S. foreign policy with her high-level position at the State Department.

Boehner, R-Ohio, told a news conference today that he had not read the letter, but said, “I don’t know Huma, but from everything that I do know of her she has a sterling character. Accusations like this being thrown around are pretty dangerous.”

The letter was sent June 13 to Harold Geisel, the Deputy Inspector General at the Department of State, while similar copies exploring other ties to the Muslim Brotherhood were sent to the Departments of Homeland Security, Justice, Defense and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

The letter states, “The Department’s Deputy, Chief of Staff, Huma Abedin, has three family members – her late father, her mother and her brother – connected to Muslim Brotherhood operatives and/or organizations.”

It adds, “Her position affords her routine access to the Secretary and to policy making.”

The letter was signed by Bachmann, Trent Franks, R-Ariz., Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, Thomas Rooney, R-Fla., and Lynn Westmoreland, R-Ga., read. “Her position affords her routine access to the Secretary and to policy making.”

Asked whether he believes that Bachmann should lose her seat on the Intelligence Committee, Boehner said he did not believe that the issues were related. Bachmann contends that the intent of her letter has been distorted.

Abedin, who was born in Kalamazoo, Mich., is married to former Rep. Anthony Weiner, a New York Democrat who resigned after admitting he sent lewd pictures of himself to women from his House office.

McCain, R-Ariz., went on the Senate floor Wednesday to denounce the letter.

“These attacks have no logic, no basis, and no merit and they need to stop. They need to stop now,” McCain said.

Chris Maddaloni/CQ Roll Call(WASHINGTON) -- Describing the accusations against her as “ugly” and “sinister,” Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., came to the defense of Huma Abedin, longtime aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Last week five Republican members of the House of Representatives, including former presidential candidate Michele Bachmann, made claims that Abedin’s family has ties to Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood and questioned whether she is part of a nefarious conspiracy to harm the United States by influencing U.S. foreign policy with her high-level position at the State Department.

“The Departments Deputy, Chief of Staff, Huma Abedin, has three family members – her late father, her mother and her brother – connected to Muslim Brotherhood operatives and /or organizations. Her position affords her routine access to the Secretary and to policy making,” according to the June 13th letter, signed by Reps. Bachmann, R-Minn., Trent Franks, R-Ariz., Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, Thomas Rooney, R-Fla., and Lynn Westmoreland, R-GA.

The letter was sent to Harold Geisel, the Deputy Inspector General at the Department of State, while similar copies were sent to the Departments of Homeland Security, Justice, Defense and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

The lawmakers point to a report by the Center for Security Policy, a conservative think tank, which makes the allegations about Abedin’s family ties and calls on the Deputy Inspector General of the Department of State to begin an investigation into the possibility that Abedin and other American officials are using their influence to promote the cause of the Muslim Brotherhood within the U.S. government.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., took to the Senate floor today to rip apart his fellow Republicans’ accusations and came to the defense of Abedin, whom he calls a “fine and decent American,” after observing her work as both a long-time aide to Clinton while she was a Senator and as the Secretary of State.

“These sinister accusations rest solely on a few unspecified and unsubstantiated associations of members of Huma’s family, none of which have been shown to harm or threaten the United States in any way,” McCain said. “These attacks have no logic, no basis, and no merit and they need to stop. They need to stop now.”

McCain argued that there is no evidence to back up the claims by the House Republicans.

“To say that the accusations made in both documents are not substantiated by the evidence they offer is to be overly polite and diplomatic about it,” McCain said. “The letter in the report offer not one instance of an action, a decision or a public position that Huma has taken while at the State Department or as a member of then-Senator Clinton’s staff that would lend credence to the charge that she is promoting anti-American activities within our government.”

McCain said that no one, “not least a member of Congress,” should launch such a “degrading attack against fellow Americans on the basis of nothing more than fear of who they are an ignorance of that hey stand for.”

A statement issued after McCain’s speech by Bachmann suggested the letter was being taken out of context.

The controversy comes at a time when Abedin’s husband, disgraced former Congressman Anthony Weiner, may be trying to revamp and clean up his image. After being out of the public eye for over a year following an embarrassing sexting scandal which led to his resignation from Congress, rumors are swirling that Weiner may be planning a bid to succeed Michael Bloomberg as New York City’s mayor.

“It took a lot of work to get to where [we] are today, but I want people to know we’re a normal family,” Abedin told People magazine in an interview this week with her husband.

Mark Wilson/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- The pro-Obama forces were chanting outside the Supreme Court on Tuesday even louder than they were Monday, and Tea Party icon Michele Bachmann’s presence only galvanized them.

“We love Obamacare,” nearby demonstrators chanted, drowning out the voice of Tea Party Patriots co-founder Jenny Beth Martin so that she had to stop a few times to see whether she was being heard.

“Is it on?” Martin asked herself, looking at the microphone as a couple dozen Tea Party supporters stood around her. “Is it loud enough?”

A handful of Tea Party figures paraded by the lectern, including a handful of representatives and a few prominent conservatives such as Ralph Reed. “Give us a chance to talk,” said Kathryn Serkes, the head of the Doctor Patient Medical Association.

Finally, Bachmann arrived but had trouble being heard as a pro-”Obamacare” demonstrator walked as close as she could to the scrum and screamed into a megaphone, “We love Obamacare” and other chants.

Bachmann said that while the Supreme Court justices heard arguments about the so-called individual mandate that “this is the day that we’ve been waiting for.”

She warned that the government is on the verge of requiring Americans to buy vegetables. “What kind of country is this?” she asked.

The former presidential candidate spoke with only prescreened reporters after her speech and brushed aside others’ questions about whether she would endorse another candidate in the GOP primary or whether she thinks Mitt Romney should apologize for his role in crafting the health care law in Massachusetts that is so similar to Obama’s.

“No. I’m done. Thanks,” Bachmann said as she walked toward the Capitol.

AFP/Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- Former presidential candidate Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) said she believes the Republican Party will unify behind the eventual nominee, and does not believe they will be hampered by the ongoing primary fight.

“I think the quicker that the Republicans can unify behind our candidate and make Barack Obama and his failed policies the focus of this election, the better off we all will be, but the people need to decide,” Bachmann told George Stephanopoulos on “This Week.”

Bachmann has not endorsed a candidate, and did not say whether Rick Santorum or Newt Gingrich should end their challenge to front-runner Mitt Romney.

“Whoever the people choose, I will back that candidate, because I want mine not to be a divisive voice,” Bachmann said. “I want to help unify the party and bring together the Tea Party element, the evangelical, and the establishment, and then reach out to independents and disaffected Democrats.”

When asked if Santorum’s continued challenge to Romney was in fact helping Obama, Bachmann referenced the highly-contested 2008 race between Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama, which lasted until June.

“We will unify. There’s no question,” Bachmann said. “Here it is, March, and we will unify, and I think long before the Democrats did in 2008.”

Bachmann said she was not concerned about Romney adviser Eric Ferhnstrom’s comment last week comparing the Romney campaign to an Etch A Sketch that will be reset for the general election, saying, “these kind of things are the minors that become majors, these statements.”

Bachmann said that arguments over the president’s health care law, which is being challenged in the Supreme Court this week, will instead be the main focus of the general election.

“The real issue that most Americans are concerned about is the constitutionality of the government forcing Americans to pay for a very expensive insurance policy,” Bachmann said. “The people do not like this bill at all. They do not like the federal government forcing them to spend their money in a way that they don’t want to spend it.”

Bachmann said President Obama “can’t even go before the public and defend” his signature legislation, citing that he did not “make a peep” on the two-year anniversary of the bill last week.

Bachmann added that she believes her own run for the nomination, where she emphasized her opposition to the health care law, helped shape the current GOP field’s position.

“Now our nominees, all four of them or all four candidates, have just one answer, and that’s full-scale repeal,” Bachmann said. “That’s 180 degrees different from President Obama, who fully stands behind this very unpopular bill. Whoever our nominee is, they will repeal Obamacare.”

ABC News(WASHINGTON) -- Obama senior adviser David Plouffe eviscerated former House Speaker Newt Gingrich on “This Week” after the GOP presidential candidate lashed out at the president for his comments on the death of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin.

“Those comments are reprehensible,” Plouffe said this morning on “This Week.” “Speaker Gingrich is clearly in the last throes of his political career … You can make a decision whether to go out with some shred of dignity or say these irresponsible reckless things. And he’s clearly chosen the latter."

Plouffe was addressing comments Gingrich made on “The Sean Hannity Show” on Friday, calling President Obama’s remarks on the Martin case at a Friday Rose Garden press conference “disgraceful” for focusing on race.

“What the President said, in a sense, is disgraceful. It’s not a question of who that young man looked like. Any young American of any ethnic background should be safe. Period,” Gingrich said. “We should all be horrified no matter what the ethnic background. Is the President suggesting that if it had been a white who had been shot that would be okay because it wouldn’t look like him? That’s just nonsense.”

President Obama had said “If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon” in his Friday remarks on the shooting death of the unarmed Florida teenager that has outraged the nation.

“I can only imagine what these parents are going through. And when I think about this boy, I think about my own kids,” President Obama said. “And you know, I think every parent in America should be able to understand why it is absolutely imperative that we investigate every aspect of this and that everybody pulls together — federal, state and local — to figure out exactly how this tragedy happened.”

Rep. Michele Bachmann, (R-Minn.), told me that she believed Gingrich was emphasizing that “race shouldn’t be a factor” when examining the case.

“All human life is valuable. That should be the bottom line,” Bachmann said. “I’m a mother … And when you’re a mother, of course, when something tragic like this happens, you want to know what the truth is, what’s the result. That’s why an investigation is so important. We have to get to the truth about what really happened.”

Scott Olson/Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- Rep. Michele Bachmann says she will not join the cast of ABC’s Dancing With the Stars for its 14th season, despite rumors that she was under consideration for the program by the show’s producers.

“In full disclosure, I did win a polka-dancing competition when I was in the 10th grade at my alma mater, Anoka High School in Anoka, Minnesota,” Bachmann, R-Minn., said in a statement Wednesday. “But, despite my 10th-grade polka success and my lifelong love of ballroom dancing, the recent rumors are false. I will not be joining Dancing with the Stars.”

A Bachmann aide said the congresswoman, 55, has received no formal invitation to join the cast, but wanted to release a statement to squash the buzz after reports indicated she was under consideration.

The former candidate for the Republican nomination for president is not the first former contender to decide against joining the popular program. Herman Cain on Tuesday said he was not interested, despite overtures from the show’s producers.

Bachmann, who dropped out of the race for the nomination Jan. 4, said she will instead focus on the needs of her district as she seeks a fourth term in the House of Representatives.

The full cast for this season will be revealed Feb. 28 on ABC’s Good Morning America. The show’s first episode premieres March 19.

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- At the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C., jokes were a common thread between the speeches of former GOP presidential candidates Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry.

Bachmann and Perry each received warm receptions at the conference, being held Thursday, Friday and Saturday in downtown D.C. Their speeches were short and addressed different policies of the Obama administration that they believe to be failures.

Perry’s speech focused on domestic issues, drawing heavily upon his identity as a “10th Amendment conservative,” a reference to the 10th Amendment to the Constitution, which stipulates states have powers not specifically allocated to the federal government. Bachmann focused her speech on the Obama administration’s foreign policy, specifically its policy regarding Israel.

The two former presidential candidates overlapped in their respective introductions. Both Bachmann and Perry started off their remarks with jokes about their failed bids.

“Running for president of the United States is really one series of humiliations after another,” Bachmann told the crowd.

The Minnesota congresswoman went on to lay out the three lessons she’d learned on the trail -- where John Wayne was born, when Elvis Presley was born and to never forget the three things you’ve learned.

Rick Perry also embraced the idea that one must be able to joke about himself in his remarks.

“As many of you know, I had certain ideas about putting an end to this president’s failed administration, but the people of Iowa and New Hampshire had a different idea,” Perry said. "But back at Texas A&M, my alma mater, we had a very unique way of addressing defeat: Aggies never lose, we just run out of time. So you can say that my presidential campaign ran out of time.”

Neither candidate made reference to the current GOP field. Rick Perry has endorsed Newt Gingrich, but he did not mention the former House speaker while speaking to audience. Michele Bachmann has not endorsed a current candidate yet.

Scott Olson/Getty Images(TAMPA, Fla.) -- Mitt Romney is heading to the Minneapolis area on Wednesday -- the day after his decisive win in the Florida primary -- and rumors had been swirling that Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann might offer up her endorsement while he’s there.

Not going to happen, according to Bachmann.

“Let me be absolutely clear -- there are absolutely no negotiations between me and the Romney campaign regarding any pending endorsement of Governor Romney,” she said in a statement. “I continue to speak with all the candidates and plan on uniting behind the presumptive nominee.”

While Romney holds a grassroots rally in Eagan, Minn., Wednesday afternoon, Bachmann plans to be in Washington, DC.

A source close to the former presidential contender, who dropped out after a disappointing finish in the Iowa caucuses, backed up Bachmann’s statement that she has “talked to all” of the remaining four Republican candidates vying for the party’s nomination, including Romney.

“She may or may not endorse someone,” according to the Bachmann confidante.

In her statement on Wednesday, the congresswoman called a Boston Globe story speculating about an endorsement “completely false.” The story also raised the possibility that if she endorsed Romney, the former Massachusetts governor might help her, “pay off her lingering campaign debt.” Her fourth quarter campaign finance report showed her in the hole more than $1 million.

Bachmann fired back, saying, “I call on the Globe to retract their article."

“Last night, the people of Iowa spoke with a very clear voice, so I have decided to stand aside,” Bachmann said at a news conference, flanked by her parents, husband and five children. “I have no regrets, none whatsoever. We never compromised our principles and we can leave this race knowing we ran it with the utmost integrity.”

Bachmann said she will continue to fight the policies of President Obama, particularly his health care legislation, calling the 2012 election “the last chance to turn our country around, before we go down the road of socialism.”

She said she was motivated to stop Obama and not by a thirst for power. “Though I’m a congresswoman by title, a politician I’ve never been. … I’m not motivated by vanity, glory or the quest for power.”

Bachmann had staked her candidacy on Iowa, the state in which she was born and raised. In September, campaign manager Keith Nahigian called Iowa a “must win” state.

Bachmann placed last out of the six candidates competing in Tuesday’s first-in-the-nation caucuses, receiving only 5 percent of the vote and losing in Waterloo, the town where she was born.

Bachmann, a three-term congresswoman from Minnesota, emerged on the national political scene riding the wave of Tea Party activism. As the founder of the Tea Party Caucus in Congress, Bachmann’s socially conservative, family-oriented approach initially captured the support of staunch conservatives and evangelical Christians.

AFP/Getty Images(DES MOINES, Iowa) -- GOP contender Michele Bachmann placed dead last among the Republican candidates competing in the Iowa caucuses, a stunning fall for a candidate who just five months ago cruised to victory in the Iowa straw poll.

Despite a dismal sixth-place finish, with a percentage of votes in the single digits, Bachmann pledged to remain in the race.

“I believe I am the true conservative who can beat Barack Obama,” she said to a small gathering of supporters here.

“Once again this wonderful Republic worked. This process worked. The people of Iowa spoke,” she said.

Sounding upbeat if not out of touch, she thanked the “people of Iowa for launching us on a path to victory in the Iowa straw poll.”

Staffers close to the campaign, however, suggested that Bachmann, low on cash, might still drop out. Her campaign manger Keith Nahigian, however, said the campaign was “still full steam ahead” and would continue with plans to travel to South Carolina.

The Minnesota congresswoman has pledged to continue on to compete in South Carolina, telling reporters her plane tickets there are already “bought and paid for.”